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Paul Beeston gets standing ovation at Jays’ annual State of the Franchise

Team tells season-ticket holders Rogers Centre could have grass field by 2018, and they are also hoping to host an all-star game soon.

Follow a turbulent off-season regarding his status with the Jays, president Paul Beeston felt the love from the season-ticket holders at Thursday's State of the Franchise address. (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star)

A short ovation from a few hundred season-ticket holders won’t undo the damage done to Paul Beeston’s legacy by his employer this off-season, but the modest gesture made by Blue Jays fans to the long-time team president at Thursday’s annual State of the Franchise event likely served as some consolation.

Beeston, famously the Jays’ first employee and now in his second stint as president and CEO, endured a very public search for his replacement over the past two months, reportedly led by Rogers Communications’ deputy chairman Edward Rogers.

But after a clumsy head-hunting effort that left the Jays’ open to potential tampering charges while angering both the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, Rogers, which owns the Jays, eventually ended up right back where they started, re-signing Beeston, who plans to retire after this season, to a one-year deal that will ensure some semblance of a proper swan song.

“I have every intention of going out with a winning team,” Beeston told the crowd in his opening address. “A team you deserve.”

With the new, bright green artificial turf serving as the backdrop, the Jays hosted their annual event for season-ticket holders, plying them with free food and booze while manager John Gibbons, GM Alex Anthopoulos and Beeston answered a series of pre-screened questions.

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The crowd voiced their displeasure with the closest representative of Rogers in attendance, booing the Jays senior vice-president of business operations, Stephen Brooks, who was merely delivering new information about digital ticketing.

It was at this event three years ago Beeston boldly claimed the Jays would make the post-season two or three times over the next five years. After 2012’s flat, injury-riddled lukewarm bath of a season, 2013’s over-hyped flop and last year’s first-place flirtation, Beeston now has just one year left to salvage his promise.

But this figures to be a pivotal year for those below Beeston as well.

Anthopoulos, whom Beeston hired, is in the final year of his contract and there’s little chance he survives if the Jays miss the playoffs. Same goes for Gibbons, who was Anthopoulos’s unpopular choice to lead the team in the wake of John Farrell’s unceremonious departure to the Red Sox.

Before the question-and-answer portion of the evening, a video montage was played on the jumbotron. “In 2014, we fell short,” the first caption read. “Our foundation is strong. But adjustments were needed.” Shots of prized off-season acquisitions Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson flashed, along with the team’s veteran and budding stars.

The video concluded with the phrase: “Built for today, built to last.”

The latter point — building a sustainable contender — is an important goal for every professional sports franchise. But for these Jays — whose 21-year post-season drought is the longest in North American professional sports — and the three men currently at the helm, only the former matters.

It’s true the combination of Anthopoulos and Beeston have built a stronger foundation for the club, primarily through better drafts and a much more robust farm system, much of which has been used via trade in order to put together the current roster. The successful retro-rebranding, improved attendance and commitment to natural grass are also to be commended. But none of that will matter if they are still on the outside looking in come October.

With the additions of Martin and Donaldson the team should be better. But significant questions remain, not only in the bullpen but also at second base and in centre field, where they are planning to go with Mississauga’s Dalton Pompey, who has just 43 big-league plate appearances to his name.

Assuming the team’s payroll is roughly what it was last year ($137 million), the Jays have about $7 million left to spend. Anthopoulos said he is still exploring free-agent relievers — though the market is admittedly weaker now than it was at the start of the off-season — but also suggested the team’s opening-day payroll may be less than it was last year, which would allow for more spending in-season, prior to the trade deadline.

“That’s definitely part of the equation,” he said.

One significant piece of news that came out of Thursday’s event was the fact that the Jays have signed a formal contract with the University of Guelph to research how natural grass can be installed inside the Rogers Centre in time for the 2018 season. The team has been in discussion with Guelph for more than a year but had yet to sign a contract. It had been suggested to the Star by some turf experts that if a deal was not reached by this summer the 2018 timeline would have been in jeopardy.

Beeston also said the team was putting in a proposal to get an all-star game. Toronto last hosted the event in 1991. Two teams have hosted it twice since then, while only Oakland has waited longer.

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